Women heed lung cancer warnings

Lung cancer continues to claim the lives of an increasing number of women in Europe, but there are positive signs that the tide may be turning, researchers said today.

Female death rates from lung cancer lag behind those of men because women have not smoked for as long.

Fewer women die from the disease, but their numbers have been growing since the 1980s while male mortality has declined.

The latest study of female lung cancer trends in Europe shows that death rates are still rising in most countries.

But researchers today said there was room for cautious optimism, assuming more European women chose not to smoke.

In some countries, including England and Wales, death rates for lung cancer among women were declining or slowing down.

Most hopefully there was clear evidence that younger women were heeding the "quit smoking" message and avoiding a premature death from lung cancer.

If the picture continued to improve, female deaths from the disease in Europe would probably never match the epidemic levels they have attained in the United States, said the scientists.

Leading cause of cancer

There, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women. In the UK, women are more likely to die from breast cancer than lung cancer.

Dr Cristina Bosetti, from the Instituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, who led the research, said: "We saw steady long-term declines among younger women in Ireland and the UK since the late 1960s.

"In a number of others, including Austria, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland, the rates among younger women have also tended to fall in the last few years.

"This is a major finding of the present analysis, particularly in those countries where a peak in lung cancer mortality has already been reached, because it suggests that overall trends are

likely to be more favourable in the future.

"Trends for young adults are an early indicator of the recent and potential future impact of changes in the prevalence of risk factors."